The sickening NRL grand final injury that brought down Fensom

HIS grand final may have lasted just three minutes but Shaun Fensom was still thinking of ways to help his North Queensland teammates as he was being taken from the field on a medicab with a suspected broken leg.

Fensom's heavily strapped left knee was smashed accidentally by his own teammate Ethan Lowe as he tried to cling on to Melbourne prop Jesse Bromwich.

Replays of Fensom going down brought thousands of groans from members of the crowd who were still taking their seats.

Bromwich knew he had bombed a certain try and punched the ball in anger as Fensom punched the ground in pain after breaking his leg.

Cowboys trainers quickly gave Fensom something for the pain. Referee Matt Cecchin told the players the break was going to be a lengthy one.

After about 10 minutes, the medicab made the long, slow trek down the ground with Fensom on the back of it.

Just as the medicab turned for the exit, Fensom gave the thumbs up to a large section of the Cowboys crowd.

Shaun Fensom gives the thumbs up to the crowd as he is taken off in the NRL grand final. Picture. Phil Hillyard

As the supporters applauded, Fensom signalled for the crowd to make more noise and get behind their team, who were reduced to 16 men for ­virtually the entire game.

He did not sulk about the biggest night of his life being cut short. Nor the summer in rehab he will face.

Fensom, 29, was focused on the job at hand and his mates.

It's little wonder Canberra found it so difficult to release the loyal and wonderful club man for salary-cap reasons ­before the season kicked off.

Canberra's Ricky Stuart said moving on Fensom, as well as Edrick Lee, was "the hardest thing I've had to do as a Raiders coach''.

Fensom has enjoyed a new lease of life up north, especially once Matt Scott went down in round two and a vacancy in the forwards opened up. He's a good player. He deserved more than his three minutes of fame.